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Message: <blockquote data-quote="loseth" data-source="post: 3950885" data-attributes="member: 54535">[Multi-forum post: RPG.net and ENworld]It’s probably my most serious failing as a Dungeons & Dragons player: I’ve never been able to accept hit points as an abstract mix of everything and anything—defensive ability, armour, reflexes, divine favour and the ability to absorb physical punishment. It’s especially the mixing of that last element with all the others that gets me. I just can’t refrain from analysing stuff and whenever you start analysing HP in anything other than metagame terms, they stop making sense. In my youth, I played around with many homebrew systems that tried to turn HP into one concrete variable: the ability to absorb physical punishment. These systems invariably sucked donkey balls. As I got older, however, my HP systems tended more and more to specifically exclude the ability to absorb physical punishment. These systems tended to work much better but still bothered the analyst in me because they were always somewhat vague on what, precisely, HP were. So, in my latest thinking, I’ve tried to give HP a precise, rigorous definition, and think I’ve come up with one that works well:Hit points are Anti-Pwnage Awesomeness. Now, that may sound like nothing more than a simple re-naming of HP, but the thing is that unlike the term ‘hit points,’ ‘Anti-Pwnage Awesomeness’ (APA) has a precise, scientific definition:Anti-Pwnage Awesomeness (noun, uncountable). abbr. APA. The ability—arising from martial skill, danger-honed instincts, heroic luck and favour from gods—to narrowly avoid an attack that should by all rights have pwned you,. Finally, I have an exact definition for HP. No more arbitrariness. APA is what happens when it looks like the sword is going to pierce your gut, but somehow you manage to twist out of the way at the last second. It’s when the axe is inches away from taking your head off, but you just manage to get your shield up in time. Of course, as a fight goes on, you become fatigued, lose your mental composure and feel your luck begin to run out. Your APA, and thus your reserve of HP, starts running out. This, of course, leads to the important question of what happens when your APA runs out. And here again, a precise, scientific answer can be given. So, do you want to know what happens when your reserve of hit points reaches zero? This is what happens:You get pwned b*tch! You don’t lose CON points. You don’t go into negative HP. You get PWNED!And you can find out in precisely which way you’ve been pwned by employing that great and much underused Gygaxian tool: consultation of the relevant table. Just take the total amount of damage over and above your remaining HP and consult the appropriate table, according to weapon type. Here’s the table for light piercing weapons:Light Piercing Weapons1Your arm’s been skewered: bleed 1 point per round, passing out when your bleeding score equals your CON score and dying when your bleeding score equals twice your CON; suffer a -2 attack penalty with the arm2Oh-oh! Your leg’s been run through: bleed 3 points per round, passing out when your bleeding score equals your CON score and dying when your bleeding score equals twice your CON; suffer a -3 attack penalty to all attacks3-4Ouch! You’ve taken a sharp object straight through your gut: bleed 3 points per round, passing out when your bleeding score equals your CON score and dying when your bleeding score equals twice your CON; make a DC 12 WILL save or freak out (1d6: 1-2 run in terror, 3-5 collapse whimpering and trying to stop the bleeding with your hands, 6 go berserk)5-6Your chest has been run through: bleed 5 points per round, passing out when your bleeding score equals your CON score and dying when your bleeding score equals twice your CON; make a DC 15 FORT save to stay on your feet and if you succeed make a DC 12 WILL save not to freak out (1d6: 1-3 run in terror, 4-6 stand there staring at the hole in your chest)7-8Oh dear. Pierced jugular: bleed 8 points per round, passing out when your bleeding score equals your CON score and dying when your bleeding score equals twice your CON; make a DC 12 WILL save or freak out (1d6: 1-2 run in terror, 3-5 stagger around with your hands on your throat, 6 go berserk)9-10You’ve been stabbed through the heart: drop dead on your next turn; make a DC 20 FORT or WILL save to get one standard or move action before the actual dropping dead takes place11+This is very bad. You’ve been stabbed through the eye. And right into the brain. This has all sorts of bad effects, but the worst is that you’re stone dead.I don’t have all the tables together yet, but I think I like this system. Someday I’ll get the chance to playtest it, but for now—any suggestions on improving it?Thanks in advance,loseth</blockquote>

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